Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) is
the prime government agency engaged in rural development and poverty alleviation. BRDB
basically operates by organising the small and marginal farmers into co-operative
societies for increasing agricultural production through improved means and by forming
formal and informal groups of landless men and distressed women to promote income
generating activities in the rural areas.

Integrated Rural
Development Program (IRDP) was lunched in 1972 with a view to replicate the two-tier
co-operative system as the main vehicle for rural development based on the "Comilla
Model" that evolved through experiments in Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development
(BARD) at Comilla in the 1960s. In view of its success, the program was transformed in
1982 into a nation-wide institution called Bangladesh Rural Development Board. Gradually, the activities
of BRDB expanded beyond its originally mandated functions to the task of alleviation of
endemic rural poverty by reaching the poorest of the poor through group-based,
self-employment and income enhancing initiatives. To fulfil its lately assumed mission of
reducing rural poverty, BRDB had to adopt a new strategy and undertake a number of
development projects in addition to its normal programs.BRDB has so far implemented 45
developmental projects and 15 are now under implementation.